1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to integrated circuits in general and, more particularly, to an on-chip thermometer and methods for using the on-chip thermometer to measure a local temperature on an integrated circuit and to operate the integrated circuit in response to received measurements.
2. Description of Related Art
The concept of integrated circuits (ICs) are generally well known. The ability of manufacturers to place an increasingly large number of transistors on a single IC, or chip, continues to expand. For example, currently chip manufacturers are able to place up to ten million transistors on a single integrated circuit or monolithic substrate. It is anticipated that within several years chip makers will be able to place one billion transistors on a single chip. Thus, computer systems are evolving toward comprising a handful of computer chips, where each computer chip comprises a plurality of functions. The integration of a plurality of modules or functions on a single computer chip requires improved chip architectures. Due to the shorter distances and tighter integration of components on a chip, the operating temperatures of new data transfer architectures are increasing. As the operating temperatures of a chip increase, the lifetime for that chip tend to decrease due to permanent migration of charge carriers. Therefore an improved system and method of operation are necessary to assure that integrated circuits are operated at proper temperatures even when multiple processing modules are present on the integrated circuit.